Chapter 353: Tracking and Kava

"After I advanced to seventh tier, my efficiency picked up, and with Watching Yuna coming over to help, we made 108 in total. Next month we might do even more."

Selina said.

She was the sort who couldn't sit still.

Spell research often involved long waits, and she always found time to finish making the magic rings — a process that no longer required any thought.

Rod didn't bother looking at those magic rings.

He pinched her cool little face.

"These are small matters. You need to take care of yourself — is it normal for a zombie's eyes to have bloodshot veins?"

He pried open her eyelid again.

Watching Yuna gave a wry smile. "Young Lady Selina hasn't rested in five days."

Selina continued with a tight, insincere smile. "Speaking of taking care of yourself, I wonder who threw a month-long party at Henry's Farm."

Hearing that, the spider-kin girl's face flushed slightly, and she lowered her head without a word.

"I did call you over. You just didn't come."

Rod shrugged.

He tucked the magic rings into his spell pouch.

He was about to leave when Selina called out to him:

"In every batch of magic rings, I pick a few and add a 【Disassembly Feedback】 spell to them — you know this."

"Right."

This was something Rod had asked her to include. Although the spell couldn't reveal the disassembler's location or identity, it could at least serve as a warning.

"Two days ago, the spell triggered."

"Understood."

Someone's got their eye on me.

Rod wasn't surprised.

It was true that slightly inferior, privately made goods leaked out of the Celestial Flower Kingdom, but no one else could match his stable output and quality at the same time.

Whether it was other organizations looking to grab a piece of the pie, or the Celestial Flower Kingdom itself, interest in the magic rings in his hands was inevitable.

And besides—

Since the feedback spells triggered even though Selina only put a few in each batch, from a probability standpoint, whoever was investigating him had been at it for quite a while.

But fortunately—

Judging by the fact that no one had made direct contact yet, they probably hadn't found him.

Rod thought it over.

He still spent half an hour learning a few spells for detecting and clearing tracking.

Combined with the 【Camouflage Domain】 locked into his body and the 【Scent Camouflage】 skill shared with the dog-kin Sharon, he was confident no one could see through him.

Magic Control Union, Market District.

Nearly two months had passed, and the boom brought by the Magic Control Union's other-dimensional cleanup squads had already faded.

The streets of the Market District had returned to their previous quiet, deserted state.

Disguised in appearance, Rod arrived at a small eatery one street away from his own shop.

The Magic Control Union did a decent job protecting anonymous shops.

When you signed the contract, they gave you a set of 【Item Teleportation】 tools. Without ever touching the shop, you could teleport the goods you wanted to sell inside, and the magical mannequins inside would handle the rest.

The process went smoothly.

Operating from a street away — I really don't believe you can find me.

Still, better to be cautious.

Rod picked up the meal box and tossed the half-eaten hand-beaten meatballs and deep-fried mystery-skin into the trash.

Damn it.

Tasted awful.

Blacklisted.

Next time I'll have to ask Lady Aona which snack stalls in the Market District are actually good.

The shopkeeper was a Bear Spirit — a sentient race that looked just like bears but had decent intelligence.

He probably hadn't seen Rod toss the meal box straight into the trash, and still had the nerve to come up with a grin and ask how the food was today.

Rod gave him a thumbs-up, said nothing, and walked right past him.

But Rod had no intention of leaving so quickly.

After all, since he was already here, he might as well look around.

He didn't need any more magical accessories — there were plenty of girls in the forest, so he had to stock up.

Selina was running low on casting materials for the rings, and Lady Kali had recently been short on a few hard-to-find items. Quite a list.

However, ten minutes later—

【Spider Sense】 told Rod that someone was watching him.

"Huh."

Not bad.

Looks like the set of 【Item Teleportation】 tools the Magic Control Union provided wasn't a permanent solution after all.

Teleportation spells weren't unbreakable.

Among divination spells, there was one called 【Teleportation Prophecy】 that could locate the teleportation endpoint.

But Rod clearly remembered that the Magic Control Union onboarding manual included regulations on forbidden spells, and one of the key controlled locations was the Market District.

"Is there a helper of theirs inside the Demon Control Union?"

It's just that this helper clearly didn't hold much power.

At most, they could only manage to indulge the tracker and arrange prophecy spells.

Otherwise, they could have just looked up the contract Rod signed for the anonymous shop back then and been done with it — why bother?

Rod pretended not to notice.

He browsed and bought as he pleased, spending nearly two hours before gathering everything.

Then he slipped into the outer area of the affairs hall, where there were more idle bystanders and the control was less strict.

The moment he merged with the crowd, 【Camouflage Domain】 took effect, instantly changing Rod's face and appearance.

After all, it was the power of a Domain.

The tracker within 【Spider Sense】 lost their target and looked around in confusion.

The hunter has become the hunted, my friend.

Rod came to the side of the hall's front desk, half-listening to the clerk chatting with others while pretending to casually keep an eye on the tracker with his peripheral vision.

It was a middle-aged woman.

Thin figure, but looks not bad — a woman past her prime.

They all say women are like grapes — the older, the richer the flavor.

He had never tasted an old grape yet, perhaps—

Forget it, she's a human, bro's not really interested.

Rod sneakily swiped a fried bug skewer from the clerk's desk and grabbed one.

Ugh, bitter as hell.

Does the Demon Control Union actually have anything good to eat??

He spat it back out and put it back on the clerk's desk.

The middle-aged woman tracker wasn't willing to give up and began searching all around the affairs hall.

She definitely wouldn't find anything.

It took her over half an hour before she finally gave up.

Crestfallen, she returned to the market district.

She was seen chatting briefly with a mage wearing a black robe, then heading to the Demon Control Union's large teleportation array.

There were even more people here.

The cool female voice of "Locke Heart" kept calling out the queue numbers for the next teleportation destination.

The Demon Control Union's teleportation array was strong, sure.

But it was expensive.

Many Demon Control Union employees would carpool to split the cost.

This tracker did the same.

Rod easily slipped into her teleportation carpool and arrived at a small country called Kava.

That country had been rather famous lately.

The Snowball Evening News reported on the country's dire situation almost every other issue.

After all, this was the country hit hardest by the super-volcanic eruption of the Twilight Mountains.

See?

The moment Rod stepped off the teleportation array, he was met with sweltering heat and oppressive air.

The sky was a dark, heavy mass.

Thick, churning volcanic ash, carrying a suffocating, acrid, and oppressive stench.

Looking north—

A magnificent black giant mountain reaching straight into the sky, like a smokestack from the industrial age, continuously spewing forth — and in the process birthing an orange-red river of lava flowing downstream.

"Oh—"

Rod felt a slight thrill of excitement.

After staying in the forest so long, how could he not feel his heart surge at such an apocalyptic sight?

(End of chapter)